The Journey of Ash Ketchum in Sinnoh
by C.J.C of GB
Summary: When Ash goes to Sinnoh, he does so without others coming. Brock is staying in Pewter to spend more time with his family, and an offhand suggestion from Professor Oak, along with more of a reward for winning the Battle Frontier means that Ash goes to Sinnoh in rather different circumstances.


Chapter 1.

Ash could not stop smiling. He had won the Battle Frontier after a lot of hard work, beating Brandon, eventually, with Pikachu knocking out his Regice at the end of the battle. He had been so proud of Pikachu for that, especially since it was a legendary Pokémon. Very few Pokémon were capable of going head to head with one, and Pikachu had won! He had just returned from his journey, back to pallet town where it had all started for him.

Brock had congratulated him on his win briefly, but then returned to his family to spend a bit more time with them, confiding in Ash that he felt that he was getting too distant from them. He had told Ash that he would be staying in Pewter for the next year or two at least, and made sure to give Ash basic first aid training, which was a lot less complicated then Ash had thought it would be.

Scott had offered them all a lift in his car, and May and Max had gone with him, but Ash had declined, wanting to spend a bit of time alone with his pokémon. They had understood, and wished him luck on his next journey, deciding to head back to Petalburg city to their parents as well.

He didn't know why, but neither Charizard nor Squirtle had left, with Charizard actually refusing to go back to the Charific Valley. Ash hadn't bothered questioning their choice, and had simply exchanged Bulbasaur for Torcoal and Corphish.

He had the idea that training with Pokémon that were stronger then themselves would cause his newer Pokémon to become stronger, but he could scarcely believe the results.

He had started by having Torcoal fight Charizard and Squirtle battle Corphish. Neither match had lasted for more than thirty seconds. Charizard had used one Dragonbreath for ten seconds, before letting up and revealed a badly paralyzed, badly damaged Torcoal. Charizard hadn't followed it up.

The other match was less one-sided, but not by much. Squirtle had started with water gun, which was countered by Crabhammer, which Squirtle defended against by using withdraw. Then, because he had started spinning from the crabhammer, squirtle had unleashed hydro-pump, knocking Corphish into a tree. Before he could react, squirtle launched himself into a head bash and knocked Corphish out.

Both of the hoenn Pokémon had been upset by how easily they had been defeated, and had thrown themselves into their training. Corphish had been particularly incensed, learning Crunch and Guillotine by itself to try and ensure that it would never happen again.

Finally, he could see what he had been searching for. The graceful bird type Pokémon who he had left behind three years ago.

"It's good to see you again, Pidgeot."

The response that he got was the shriek that he had been expecting, before the beautiful bird landed before him. Ash took a few moments to look at Pidgeot a bit more. She had grown since he had left her to guard her tribe, by about a foot or so, although her wingspan had seemed to grow by at least four times that. It didn't seem to have any scars that Ash could see, suggesting that she had had an easy time against the Fearow.

"How are you and your flock doing, eh? Still beating that Fearow?"

The shrill reply was one of confidence, and with her chest puffed up, Ash could guess that the Fearow wasn't even a problem anymore. Then, he heard several more shrieks coming from the air, with two more Pidgeot landing on either side of his old one. Ash couldn't help but notice that his Pidgeot was far larger than the other two were.

"Awesome, Pidgeot! There are other Pidgeot in your flock now!" Ash yelled, eyes widened at seeing his Pokémon joined by others of her own species. There was an unspoken question hanging in the air, and he was fearing the answer. What if Pidgeot decided she wanted to stay with her heard. "So," he began, reaching into the pocket of his jacket. "Do you want to come with me again, or would you rather stay with your flock?"

Pulling out her old pokeball, Ash held it up to his old bird Pokémon, who let actions speak louder than words by pressing her head against the Pokeball, returning to the space it had occupied for the better part of a year when she had been travelling with him.

Seeing the leader of their flock returning to her trainer, like they had known that she would eventually, the two Pidgeot that had accompanied her to the reunion of trainer and Pokémon let off twin shrieks, announcing what had happened to the other members of the flock. Then, nodding to Ash whilst doing so, they took off, flying towards the East, leaving him behind.

"Pika?"

Startled by the sudden action of his Pokémon, it took Ash a second to recover. Pikachu hadn't said anything for a while, and was startled as a result.

"Yeah, I don't know what they were doing either, but Pidgeot is back with us after so long. I can't wait to catch up with her."

Ash resumed his walk, after returning to the path, talking to Pikachu all the while. After about half an hour, they saw a familiar face.

"Hi Gary!" he called out, increasing his pace slightly. Gary looked up in surprise, before his face split into a grin. He waited for Ash to join him, before he started walking at a sedate pace alongside Ash, eyes closed, with his head angled downwards.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't good ol' Ashy-boy." He smirked, before starting to laugh. He continued, clearly having finished teasing Ash. "Hey, well done on winning the Battle Frontier, I saw your match with Brandon. It was very impressive. Your Pikachu has grown at an unbelievable rate."

Ash raised his hand, rubbing the top of his hat a couple of times.

"It was nothing, really. Pikachu worked very hard to get as strong as he is right now."

Gary looked at him with one eyebrow raised. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, before reopening them and explaining.

"Ash, most Pokémon can only dream about going head to head with a legendary Pokémon, and it usually takes at least a decade for a trainer to be able to train a Pokémon to fight amongst them without being knocked out immediately. You managed to do it within less than half that time, with a Pokémon that isn't even fully evolved. No matter how hard he worked, you had to be a very good trainer in order to get him that good so quickly."

Ash shrugged off the praise, unused to his old rival being so complementary.

"Yeah, but I still have a long way to go. I saw Lance battle with his Dragonite, and Charizard and Pikachu together would probably be unable to even scratch it."

Gary just sighed, throwing his head back in incredulity.

"You're on about the strongest pokémon of the strongest trainer in all of Kanto and Johto, who has been trained for over thirty years, and is a pseudo-legendary pokémon. You realize that, right?" At Ash's nod, Gary just shook his head. "You really set yourself an easy target there now, didn't you?"

Ash just stared in front of him, not even answering Gary's sarcastic question. Gary simply looked at him once, shrugged, and then continued walking in silence. It didn't take long before they saw Professor Oak's lab, with Ash's face breaking into a grin in the meantime. He couldn't wait to see his mom, the professor and Tracey again, along with all his pokémon.

Although Ash couldn't see it, Gary's face was split into a grin, for an entirely different reason.

"Surprise!" was the collective yell of everyone in the room, plus Gary, as Ash opened the door.

Inside Professor Oak's lab was Tracey, Misty, Brock, Max, May, his mom, the professor and Scott. His mom rushed over to him and gave him a hug, like she always did, before explaining.

"We felt like celebrating your victory over the Battle Frontier, so we called everyone and brought them all here for this."

Everyone separated, with Misty and Tracey making a beeline towards Ash.

"Well done Ash, we saw your battle against Brandon. You did great." Said Tracey, smiling warmly.

Misty, on the other hand,

"What on earth were you thinking using a fighting type move against Dusclops, Ash? You never change do you?" she asked, shaking her head slightly, but she was smiling just as much as Tracey.

"He he, yeah, I was just so used to using that as a finishing move with Charizard, I just got caught up in the excitement." He said, still slightly embarrassed about it. "Anyway, how's everything going for the both of you?"

"I'm great, the gym is busy and is getting a reputation for being very tricky. We've actually moved up in the KAGO to fourth because of it!" Misty exclaimed, clearly proud of herself for such an achievement.

Ash grinned, happy for his friend, but he simply had to ask,

"What's KAGO?"

"Honestly, Ash," Misty said, rolling her eyes. "Sometimes I wonder how it is you don't know things like these. KAGO stands for the Kanto Advised Gym Order, or in other words, it's the order that you should battle gyms in. Pewter is first, Vermilion second, Celadon third, then it's me, then Fuschia. Saffron and Cinnabar switch from time to time, but normally Saffron is done before Cinnabar, with Viridian being recommended to be done last. Before I took over we were second."

"Well done Misty, that's great." "Thanks Ash. I need to ask Brock about something. I'll talk to you again soon."

She walked over to Brock, leaving Ash with Tracey.

"And you Tracey?"

"I'm good Ash, but I've not had as much to do as Misty. I'm liking working with Professor Oak though. He's very interesting to listen too, and I've learnt a lot of fascinating things from him."

"Why thank you Tracey, it's so nice to know that you appreciate what I'm teaching you. I'm very sorry, but I need to talk to Ash for a couple of minutes." The aforementioned professor said from just behind Tracey.

"O-Of course, Professor Oak. I'll talk to you again later, O.k. Ash?"

"Sure, later."

Both he and the professor left the lounge, entering the room where all of his pokémon were being kept when they were inside their pokeballs. Seeing the balls, Ash suddenly remembered something.

"Come on out everyone!" He announced, releasing the five pokémon that were still inside their balls. "We're at professor Oak's now."

Corphish and Torcoal headed towards the outside exit immediately, joining the pokémon that they were familiar with, while Squirtle and Pidgeot went to join their old friends while Charizard and Pikachu, who had been on his shoulder, stayed behind, with Pikachu hopping off of Ash and moved close to Charizard's tail.

_He must be cold._ Ash thought.

"Ash, there are a few things I need to tell you, so let's start with my congratulations. You did very well to beat the Battle Frontier, and were the first one to do so. I decided to get you a gift, to celebrate this. I pulled a few strings, and was able to get permission to give you a pokémon egg. When you decide to leave for your next journey, I will give it to you. Now, I assume you are planning on going to Sinnoh next, right?"

"Yeah, I was. Why?"

Ash had done a bit of research on his way back to Pallet Town, and had found that there was a region to the south that contained over a hundred new pokémon to find, that were very rare otherwise.

"I thought so. There is a boat that leaves Vermilion within the next couple of days, however it also stops off at Olivine City after twenty six days before it arrives in Sinnoh after another two weeks. Basically, I'm saying you have another three weeks to explore Kanto and Johto and reunite with old friends and Pokémon before you go to Sinnoh. Which leads me onto my third point, now that you have won two authorized league competitions, you are now allowed to carry up to thirteen pokémon with you at all times, so long as you use a maximum of six in official battles, otherwise all but 10 percent of your money on your pokédex is fined, and you are not allowed to carry thirteen anymore."

"Wow, really!" Ash exclaimed, before his expression abruptly changed to one of confusion. "Wait, there's money on my pokédex?"

Professor Oak blinked twice before frowning.

"I had always assumed you had been told by Brock and were simply being smart with your money. Every time you battle, it is registered in the pokédex of the people battling. If the trainers are of similar experience and ability, both will get a set amount of money, with the victor getting triple what the loser gains. However, if a much more experienced trainer, like, for example Brandon, battles with a trainer who hasn't done much battling, then the beginner trainer receives a lot more then Brandon does, regardless of the outcome. Should Brandon lose, however, he actually loses money because he lost to such an inexperienced trainer. The exception to that are gym leaders, where the challenger doesn't earn any money until they beat the gym leader, and the gym leader will never lose money, due to the gym leaders catering their own skills and pokémon to be of a similar level to that of the challenger. Because of this, many gyms have an A, B, and C team. You fought against A teams since you competed in the Indigo League, because appearing in the top Sixteen means you are talented or experienced enough to be able to win against the A teams of gym leaders."

"Oh, I get it. So I've been earning money by battling all this time?" Ash asked, startled by what the professor was saying.

"Yes, and you've amassed quite a bit. You've fought Agatha, Drake, and Brandon, who are all elite trainers, so that's thirty grand right there. You fought Brandon a good few times now, so that's actually more along the lines of seventy grand and not to mention that you beat him. Those things probably mean you have over a hundred grand from just those battles, and the fact that you beat Brandon, and beat the champion of the Orange Islands means you're probably classed as an elite trainer now. Hang on, let me look it up."

Ash followed the professor to the back of the room, with Charizard remaining within listening distance. Pikachu was asleep now, curled up near Charizard's flame. Professor Oak started typing onto the computer, looking at the public trainer's database. He searched for Ash, before a page came up with his picture with his details like his birth and the number of pokémon he had collected. Underneath that was a description of his accomplishments, which ended by saying 'recently was promoted to elite trainer status due to his conquering of the Kanto Battle Frontier.'

"Yep, you're now an elite trainer. And, I would say you have somewhere between two hundred and three hundred fifty thousand dollars on your pokédex."

Ash could only nod, that was a lot of money for him to suddenly have out of the blue.

"Anyway, the final point I wanted to make about ten minutes ago was that you should go and re-explore Kanto and Johto, except on a speed run where you're not stopping for gym leaders. You could also go and pick up Primape as well. Now, I've kept you for far too long, let's rejoin the party."

Ash nodded, and made his way back to the party, leaving Pikachu asleep and allowing Charizard to fly around for a bit. He had a lot to think about.

-

Ash looked at the clock next to his bed. 2:02 am. He got up, finally accepting defeat: sleep wasn't going to come for a good long while. He turned on the light, walked over to his desk, grabbed a paper and a pen, and started to think.

The professor's last comment to him, about picking up Primape, had caused him to think about other pokémon that he had befriended, and released. Sleep wasn't going to come anytime soon, so he was going to plan his journey around Kanto and Johto.

First thing on the page was picking up Primape. Ash had left it to train with Anthony for years now, and it surely didn't have much left to learn that Ash couldn't teach it. Second was going to see Sabrina and the Haunter that he had left with her, due to how close Saffron City was to Anthony and Primape. After that, he would go to the Safari Zone to catch some pokémon that were not actually Tauros. After that, he would fly to the Orange Islands and see if he could find his old Lapras.

Ash thought that that would take ten days, possibly taking as long as twelve days though, so he decided that that would be all that he would do in Kanto unless he had extra time then he thought he would. In Johto he would stop off in the Charific Valley, to ask Liza about why Charizard didn't want to go back. After that, he would go up north to see if the Larvitar that he hatched was O.K. After checking on Larvitar, Ash wrote down that he would go south to try and see both Celebi and Suicune, before going south again to Alto Mare to check in with Bianca and Latias, before going back to Olivine City to catch the boat to Sinnoh. He should arrive three days early, which he would spend relaxing and spending time with his pokémon.

He also decided to take Pikachu, Charizard, Squirtle, Pidgeot, Totodile and Sceptile. Finally feeling tired, Ash turned the light off and crept into bed. Finally going to sleep, all that he could feel was excitement for the next journey, and the prospect of being able to do everything for himself.


End file.
